The Resurrection and The Life
by Ellixer
Summary: Xena can, and will come back. Takes place after the series finale.
1. Chapter 1

The Resurrection and The Life

{ I find myself back in the mystical place of India. A place that holds mixed emotions for me but has become my refuge for the time being. I'm not sure how long it has been, years maybe since Xena left the mortal realm.

Now I pray and meditate to Shiva, for I know he will bring Xena back to me in the flesh. Her urn holds a place upon the alter that I sit before while her visage walks beside me, lays beside me, and whispers in my ear. Her destiny hasn't been fulfilled yet; it's only a matter of time before they bring her back to me. So I wait and I pray. }

The sound of the rain falling down in a rushing torrent wakes me from my sleep. A flash of lighting, boom of thunder; I wonder what God is unhappy as I stand to look out the window. The street below has become a river of mud; panicked people are fleeing their homes with children and their few possesions on their shoulders.

Should I leave? Where would I go to? Sigh. Xena what should I do? I look to her urn; the urge to cry left me long ago, but the sorrow still stings me to my bones. It takes me a moment to gather my few belongings and hug Xena's ashes to my chest. As I step out of the inn, the rain soaks me immediately.

I don't know where I'm going; my feet just seem to move, pulling me in a different direction than the fleeing masses. I don't know what it is, but it's an unnatural pull, an urge to follow some invisible trail. My feet suck into the thick mud with each step I take. I strain and struggle, a fight against the very earth I'm walking on.

I'm not sure how long I walk, nor how far; but as I come to the crest of a hill my feet stop, my knees giving out under me in exhaustion. The rain only seems to be falling harder as lighting scratches and crawls its way across the night sky. I'm blinded by a flash, causing me to shield my eyes in the crook of my arm. Spots dance before me momentarily; as they clear, I find I'm not longer alone.

The God I've been praying to is standing before me. The rain doesn't seem to touch his skin, which glows despite the darkness. I watch as he reaches down towards me, taking the urn without so much as a sound. Fear rises up like bile into my throat, constricting me as I watch him remove the lid. I don't move, I can't, as he slowly spreads the ashes along the ground. It's instantly soaked up into the mud, seemingly disappearing. He reaches out again, fingers grazing my cheek for a mere second before lightning hits the ground in front of me. The earth explodes, throwing me back a few feet with a ferocity that causes blackness to engulf my vision.

I don't know if I'm out for long, but as my eyes creep open again I find nothing has changed. I'm alone in the dark, rain still falling down like a waterfall. Was it a dream? I look around, unsure of what to do or think. My eyes catch something a few feet away. Slowly I crawl my way forward till I'm once again at the spot where Xena's ashes were spread. The mud seems to move, as if something is underneath somehow. Slowly a body pushes up through the mud, sitting straight up out of the earth. This can't be? The rain begins to wash the mud from the figure, revealing a person underneath.

Sobs begin to choke my throat, my vision becomes blurred by my own tears. I have to be dreaming, this can't be true. The mud is washing away, revealing the skin, the scars, the figure of a ghost I've been living with for so long. I can't say her name, no matter how hard I try, the word cannot get past my lips. Her eyes open, glistening blue with new life.

I reach out tentatively, afraid that this is all a mirage. Her skin feels cold under my touch, but not a deathly cold. She's real, so very real. The next few minutes become a blur I can barely remember. After wrapping a blanket around her, we stumble our way to a cave.

Mud still streaks her bare body which has begun to shake from the cold. She doesn't speak, but her eyes are following my every move as I rush to gather dry bits of wood and tinder. After I finally manage to get a fire going, I grab another dry fur from my satchel and wrap it around Xena. I can't bring myself to look her in the eyes; memories are scratching away at the surface of my sanity.

Her body bares the faint scars of her last battle in Japa. While she seems fully healed, I think the scars are meant to be a visual reminder of the sins she died for. I hesitate a moment, but cannot stop my fingers from reaching out and tracing the scar that circles her neck. Bile fights its way up my throat momentarily as the memory of her decapitated body flashes before my eyes. I pull my fingers away hastily and try to busy myself with setting up a camp in this damp cave.

Her eyes continue to follow me, and finally, I get the courage to look back. Life is beginning to glow behind those dark orbs. Her lips move but no sound escapes. I wonder if she is the same person who left me so long ago, or if she will become someone else entirely.

She lifts her arm haltingly upwards toward me, her fingers curling up and down in a gesture that stops me in my tracks for a brief moment. I move forward, forgetting whatever it was I'd been doing to fall to my knees and wrap my arms around her shivering form. Slowly she manages to do the same, though her grip is far less severe than mine. I'm surrounded by a sense of familiarity. Tears, which I thought had dried up long ago, spring to my eyes once again.

'Xena…Xena…' I whisper over and over. I just want to hear my name drips from her lips once again. "Are you real?' My face is pressed into the bare skin of her chest. Her body is beginning to warm against me, as if to reassure me of her existence. Her arms squeeze just a little tighter around me as we sit huddled together.

'Gabrielle.' Finally it comes, the barest audible rasping whisper; but it's her. This only makes my tears fall harder, sobs replacing any words I try to form we stay like this, falling asleep in each others arms. The night passes us by, and with it the storm that brought us back together.

'Xena.' I finally speak again sometime after the sun has come up. My body is wrapped possessively around hers as we lay in the bedroll. The fire died some time long ago, but I refuse the leave the refuge of her embrace.

'Please don't tell me you've come back only to fulfill another debt.' Xena doesn't speak but I know she's awake and listening. 'I love you beyond any words I could ever write, but I cannot watch you die again, not so soon.' A small sigh escapes her lips. 'Next time you go, I go too….'

'I'm sorry.' Her voice is low and raspy, but it's her voice. I lift my head to see tears glisten in her eyes.

'I'm afraid to let go.' I confess as I wipe away a stray tear from her cheek.

'I never left.' Confirmation that I wasn't insane with grief, but that Xena really did walk beside me all these years.


	2. Chapter 2

Resurrection 2

It's a slow process I think, one that perhaps we both know too well. This time thought, it's different than all the other times. It's been years since she was a whole person, since she was simply alive. I find it painful to leave her side, but I have no choice at the moment. We are very close to a village abandoned in the night. The storm brought a sea of mud down upon the small enclave, destroying nearly all the homes and shops.

I do manage to find Xena some clothes, though they were made for a man; then I scrounge up the bits of food stuff that hasn't been destroyed. I try to do these things quickly for I can't help but worry that Xena will not be in the cave when I return. I'm plagued with an anxiety that I can't shake.

Xena is sleeping silently when I return; I don't think she even moved while I was gone. I wish there was a way that I could preserve this image of her. Every second I spend gazing at her I feel like I want to cry. My heart and soul were broken and now it feels like each piece is putting itself painfully back together.

The sun is high in the sky and I find I haven't moved for the longest time. The fact that Xena is finally beginning to stir is the only thing that breaks me from my trance. My heart is beating hard against my breast; I'm waiting for this dream to end.

'Stop staring at me.' Her voice is still weak, her body moving slow as she tries to sit up. The fur falls off her shoulders, pooling at her thighs. Scars mark the points on her body where arrows struck; they dot her skin like the spots on a leopard.

'How are you feeling?' My eyes can't stop scanning the bit of skin she's exposed to me.

'I'm feeling.' She winces slightly. 'I feel like I've been brought back from the dead.' She smirks at her own joke. I don't think it's even a little funny.

'Xena, I nearly gave up.' I'm shaking my head at her; I just don't find any of this funny right now. There's been too much pain for far too long. I think I've had this conversation with her a million times now; but have I really? 'We're you really here with me? I wasn't crazy this whole time?'

'I've always been here.' The seriousness returns in her voice. 'They could take my life, but they couldn't take my soul. That belongs to you.' Sometimes she just says the exact perfect thing. My eyes tear again, and I'm beginning to annoy myself.

'You know I haven't cried in such a long time, and now I just can't seem to stop.' I laugh a little, furiously wiping the tears from my cheeks.

'But they're happy right?'

'Yeah.' My nose is running now. God's I'm a mess. 'Jeez Xena; I don't know whether to hug you or to hit you right now.'

'Come here.' She nods her head just slightly. I get up and walk the few steps to where she is sitting among the furs. 'Come on.' She reaches up for my hand, guiding me to sit down in front of her. Despite the paleness of her skin and her weak demeanor, she still has the air of a true warrior. Our fingers intertwine, her hands don't seem to feel as calloused as they used to.

Turning her hand over, my fingers delicately trace the life lines of her palm. I remember the nights when I would massage the tired muscles; each line and crease in her palms became etched into my brain.

I used to push those memories down deep; it was the only way to stay sane. I've been able to see her, and talk to her, but not really touch her. Not like this. This is real. She's not a ghost anymore; she's not a figment of my imagination.

'Xena.' I breath her name out in a long sigh. Her fingers curl around my hand, stopping the flow of memories for a brief moment. But as my head lifts and I look into her eyes, those memories jump around in my brain once again. The chaos they are causing is immense.

'Shhhhhh.' Her hand cups my cheek, and as I lean into it, her thumb gently swipes across my lips. God's. My heart is jumping in my chest; my lungs refuse to suck in air.

'I feel like I'm about to die.' It's hard for me to get the words out. Her other hand comes up, cupping the other cheek as she tries to get me to focus on her eyes. She swallows hard, her breathing becoming just as fast as mine. All of this is happening because of a look, because of a small touch. Because I love her beyond any love ever described. I refuse to dwell in the fact that she was gone; no, at this very moment I want to revel in her body. I want to feel everything.

I find myself surging forward, my lips crushing against hers. Even as the tears slide down my cheeks, I'm forgetting why I'm sad. And as her fingers sink into my skin, I forget for a moment what sadness is. Her tongue touches mine for the first time and this moment is all I can think about.

My hands curl into fists as I grasp her hair; my legs wrapping around her waist. I don't care if she's sore or in any pain; I can't contain the fierceness with which I want to show my love. I take her bottom lip between my teeth, tugging, perhaps a little too hard. Xena only groans in response, her body pushing a little more into mine.

My tongue pushes its way into her mouth and I'm tasting her again for the first time. It makes me hunger for more; makes me desire to make my body and my soul merge with hers. My lips are becoming bruised with each kiss, but I can't stop.

My hands begin to dance across her body; remapping skin I once knew so well. Despite the scars, she still feels exotic under my touch. Her body still responds like she was made specifically for me; to be manipulated only by my hands.

Finally a migration begins. Her lips move down my neck; teeth grazing my skin, making me gasp. My clothes are removed in a frenzy of movement and thrown to the side. Her eyes sparkle as they dance across my newly exposed body. She needs me as much as I need her; I can't begin to imagine what's going through her mind.

Her hands rake up my sides as her lips and tongue tease my breasts. My emotions are quickly beginning to overwhelm me. As I bring her lips to mine, I can feel the sobs building up inside me; and incredible pain seems to be etching itself across my heart. I'm beginning to feel strangled by my own grief; grief I thought I had buried so well long ago.

Xena senses this change in me, but I refuse to give in to my pain. I can taste the salt of my tears on her lips as my tongue dances across them. With each breath she manages to gasp, she is saying my name; asking a thousand questions with just one word.

I just want to be a part of her, to feel the heat of her body surrounding my fingers. It takes very little time for my hand to drop and find my way inside. She lets out a startled gasp, her body constricting momentarily with shock. I feel desperate to show her how much I need her right now, so my fingers move in a hard rapid pace in and out.

My head falls to her shoulder as I cry and groan and let everything go.


End file.
